Thursday, January 21, 2016

How to Organize My Father's World All Aboard the Animal Train 2s and 3s

I bought Princess her own homeschool curriculum. She loves sitting at the table when her brother does his school work so I thought she would love having her own school work to do. In the past I've let her color, do puzzles, and we'd read books if it wasn't too distracting. My son and I LOVED My Father's World Kindergarten when we went through it a few years ago. If my son didn't attend a part-time private school, we would probably be going through 1st grade this year.

My Father's World (MFW) has a new curriculum for 2s and 3s called All Aboard the Animal Train. In December I was able to get it for 10% off but wanted to wait until she turned two to begin. We bought the deluxe package and I hope to buy new student sheets and go through it again when Blue Knight is older.

When we got the curriculum in the mail, Princess was so excited to see everything in the box and wanted to start reading some of the books right then! She was happy to see a few books we already own as well such as Goodnight Gorilla. After we read a few books I put it away until I was ready to start. I'll be documenting our units.

MFW recommends this program for older 2s and 3s unless your child is able to sit through stories and is at a certain developmental state. Princess is. She is already comprehending longer books and can color pretty well for a newly turned two year old. I think having an older sibling helps. Also this program is very basic, it only goes up to number 5 and she can count to 10 consistently and has counted higher than that. She also knows some letters and all of her colors. So again, this is mostly for fun adding some educational and character traits in there.

A few reasons I decided to buy this was that I LOVE how each unit focuses on a character trait, color, and an animal. There are four different activities you do each day. (1) Clean Up and Together Time; (2) Story Time; (3) Surprise Time; and (4) Outside Time. It includes spiritual growth, cognitive development, reading and math, science, music, and physical development.

This is how I organized My Father's World All Aboard the Animal Train 2s and 3s. I had an old stand alone filing folder that I emptied out. I put each until in a separate folder. There are two units. We will go as fast or slow as we need to. I stored the teacher's manual in the front and will add some construction paper in the back along with scissors, the paint, and crayons. I'll also add the books for each until before we start and gather other ones that have to do with the unit in there as well.






Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Grace's 2nd Birthday Party!

We had Grace's 2nd birthday party yesterday at our house. It was a cute Curious George themed party. We invited family and a few church friends. Since it's January and the weather is unpredictable, we had it inside. Not to mention part of our yard is muddy. 

Grace and the other kids had a great time! We surprised Grace by dressing up in the middle of the party. Collin dressed up as the Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George and I dressed up as Professor Wiseman, and we dressed Jackson up as George. She was surprised! She was also excited to see us dressed up like them. The other kids thought it was neat too. Caden didn't know we were dressing up and liked our costumes as well. 

I made a few games for the kids to play. I made a feed George bananas bean bag toss where I drew and colored a George face on a foam board and made some banana bean bags. I also made a Pin the Tail on Hundley game, and a fishing game. Most of the time the kids just played. We bought a big Curious George cake that I was able to customize and add pink instead of red on different parts of it. Our main color scheme was pink and yellow. The party was a lot of fun and our little girl was so excited to celebrate her birthday with some friends.